Searching for Dark Matter Particles in a Gold Mine: a Dark Matter Day Presentation by UC Physicist Dan McKinsey

The Berkeley Public Library in conjunction with the Bay Area Science Festival and the global celebration of Dark Matter Day presents Dan McKinsey, UC Physicist and the Georgia Lee Distinguished Professor of Physics. Professor McKinsey will present a lively talk with slides on the 'search for the unseen', an amazing experiment taking place miles underground and addressing the elusive phenomenon of dark matter in the universe. Berkeley Public Library, Sunday November 5th, Central Library, 2090 Kittredge St., 3rd floor Community Meeting Room, 2:00 pm to 4:00pm with Q&A.

Professor McKinsey is a collaborator in ground-breaking current research projects.To avoid cosmic ray interference, experiments searching for dark matter interactions must be located deep underground. One new project is the LUX-ZEPLIN dark matter experiment that is taking shape at an underground research facility in South Dakota, built in the former Homestake gold mine. LUX-ZEPLIN will look for flashes of light produced by dark matter particles when they scatter in a tank filled with 10 tons of liquid xenon.

Dan McKinsey is a leader in the field of direct searches for dark matter interactions, and serves as Co-Spokesperson of the LUX experiment. He also collaborates on the LZ experiment and is doing R&D on superfluid helium for low-mass dark matter detection. McKinsey’s research centers on non-accelerator particle physics, particle astrophysics, and low temperature physics. In particular, his work is on the development, construction, and operation of new detectors using liquefied noble gases, which are useful in looking for physics beyond the Standard Model. Applications include the search for dark matter interactions with ordinary matter, searches for neutrinoless double beta decay, and the measurement of the low energy solar neutrino flux.